New Delhi:
Two months ago, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi was asked a simple question during an “Ask Me Anything” session on Instagram: was he Batman? His answer was short and playful.
“Let’s just say that no one has ever seen me and Batman in the same room together.”
Fast forward two months, and his party has actually made him the caped crusader in a post shared on Instagram. Congress shared a thirteen-second reel on Instagram that portrays Gandhi as Gotham’s protector.
In the clip, Gandhi stands on top of a row of yellow police barricades. He wears his usual white polo and khaki pants, and a crowd of supporters surrounds him below. The crowd shoves, cheers and almost takes the barricades apart in its enthusiasm.
The scene then cuts to Batman standing on a dark skyscraper, looking out into the night. The frames keep switching between the two videos. The message from the party’s social media team appears to be that Gotham has its Dark Knight, and the Opposition has its own.
This is not the first time the 56-year-old leader has been likened to the vigilante. Back in August, posters calling him “the real-life Batman” were put up near the Congress headquarters at Indira Bhawan and in parts of central Delhi. A party functionary put them up.
The posters showed Gandhi’s picture next to Batman’s. The captions read “The Silent Guardian” and “A Watchful Protector”.
The reel was not the only thing about Gandhi to catch public attention on Tuesday. Visuals of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi being dragged away by police personnel also did the rounds online.
In one video, Gandhi can be seen trying to jump out of a bus window while police try to push him back inside. In another, Priyanka can be seen climbing a gate at Kingsway Camp after she was detained alongside other Congress MPs.
The detentions followed a sit-in by Opposition leaders near the poll body’s office. They were demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Delhi Police detained Gandhi and other leaders at around 8 pm on Tuesday.
The sit-in, held on the premises of Akashwani Bhawan, was part of a protest organised by the INDIA Bloc. The bloc was objecting to what it called “unilateral” decisions taken by Kumar and “irregularities” in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls. Leaders and party workers turned out in large numbers.
Gandhi and his sister were taken to Kingsway Camp Police Station in north Delhi. They were released at around 10 pm.
